On a bright Friday afternoon in Brooklyn, the life of 27-year-old Hassan Brown was violently cut short in a brazen drive-by shooting. On June 19, 2020, Brown and a 17-year-old companion were sitting in a parked gray Nissan on Stanley Avenue in East New York when a blue 4-door sedan, also described as a Mercedes Benz, pulled up beside them. Without warning, an individual from the passenger seat of the sedan opened fire, riddling Brown with bullets to his torso, arms, legs, and head.
The teenage passenger was also struck, sustaining a gunshot wound to his right thigh.
The sudden eruption of gunfire shattered the afternoon's calm. As the suspect vehicle sped away westbound on Stanley Avenue, a wounded Brown sought refuge in a nearby deli. The deli manager recounted seeing Brown collapse, shaking and struggling to breathe as he bled from a chest wound. The 17-year-old victim was found lying in the street. Emergency services arrived and administered CPR to Brown before transporting both victims to Brookdale Hospital. Despite medical efforts, Hassan Brown was pronounced deceased, while the teenager was listed in stable condition. Brown's aunt, Sally Williams, expressed her profound grief and shock, stating, “Nobody deserves to be shot down in the street like that.”
The investigation into the homicide pointed towards a possible retaliatory motive. Hassan Brown had been identified as a person-of-interest in the May 2020 murder of local rapper KJ Balla. Federal investigators linked a friend of the late rapper, 21-year-old Anthony Williams, to the fatal shooting of Brown. Surveillance footage reportedly showed Williams driving the blue sedan that was used in the commission of the crime. The day after the shooting, the vehicle was found burnt out near JFK airport. While linked to the murder, Anthony Williams was not charged in Brown's death; instead, he faced charges of being a felon in possession of ammunition stemming from a separate, non-fatal shooting that occurred two days prior. In some reports, an associate of KJ Balla named Anthony Walker was accused of driving a gunman to murder Hassan Brown. The New York City Police Department sought public assistance in identifying the vehicle and the occupants. There are no publicly available reports of any arrests, trials, or convictions specifically for the murder of Hassan Brown.
